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THE HAGUE –
The referral of patients with chest pain from the general practitioner to the cardiologist can be much more effective. Researchers from Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) will investigate this issue in the coming period. With their colleagues from the University of Maastricht, they receive more than 500,000 euros in innovation grants.
Every day 1,400 people in the Netherlands go to their GP with chest pain. For the general practitioner, it is sometimes difficult to determine if these complaints are caused by the heart. "Many patients who are now referred to the cardiologist do not seem to have heart problems afterwards. Explains LUMC research chief Tobias Bonten.
In the study, Bonten studies whether a so-called rule of decision can help determine whether a person suffering from pain in the breast should or should not be transmitted. The rule of thumb prescribes that a general practitioner assigns points and if necessary a quick test. On the basis of the result, the general practitioner decides to wait, to consult a cardiologist or to send him directly to the hospital.
Savings of 60 million
The research is taking place in the regions of Leiden and Maastricht. Ninety general surgeons and five general practitioners are divided into two groups, half of whom use the new decision rule and the other half do not. Bonten: "If the decision rule works well, we expect ten percent fewer hospital referrals for chest pain.This would result in an annual saving of 60 million euros at the hospital. National scale. "
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